Manager Bruce Bochy has dropped Pablo Sandoval from third to fifth in tonight’s lineup against Padres left-hander Eric Stults.

Bochy hinted during the homestand he might do this against lefties if Sandoval does not break out of his seasonlong slump. He resisted the move, hoping Sandoval could right himself.

However, with the Giants scoring once in each of their past two game and four times over their past 26 innings, Bochy felt he needed to act.

Fans wanted this a long time ago. They are not as patient as Bochy, who takes a longer view. In today’s fantasy baseball society, there is no longer view. “He’s not producing. Get rid of him. Get him out of the lineup.”

Bochy is not playing fantasy baseball. He did not want to act rashly with a lineup change so soon into the season. He did not want to go into panic mode and send a message to Sandoval that the skipper has lost faith in a guy who always has hit when healthy (and trim).

This is how I like to look at things: A season is 162 games. Divide that by nine and you get 18. Thus, every 18 games equals one “inning.”

The Giants play their 18th game tonight, thus completing one inning of the 2014 season.

To say that Sandoval is not going to hit, or Hunter Pence is not going to hit, or Player X is not going to do Thing Y after one inning is rather silly. Sandoval is not going to hit .179 over the long haul. Nor will Pence hit .200. Nor will Brandon Belt hit six home runs every 17 games.

Let’s get back to last night for a moment.

After Angel Pagan’s leadoff double in the first inning against Tyson Ross, Bochy had No. 2 hitter Gregor Blanco swing away and not sacrifice. Bunting in that situation used to be de rigueur. Nowadays that view is considered foolish because there is no reason to give away an out in the first inning.

But there are exceptions to every rule, and I would have had Blanco bunt.

The Giants were in a big scoring slump and facing a pitcher who was awfully tough in his prior start against the Tigers. Sometimes there is a psychological benefit to taking a 1-0 lead. For the Giants, it goes beyond psychological. They are 7-1 when they score first. Also, this is not Coors Field. It’s Petco Park, where 3-2 and 2-1 games are the norm.

I’d have like to seen Pagan on third base with Brandon Belt at the plate and one out. I understand the counterargument: The No. 2 hitter should be able to get a ball to the right side. Well, lots of hitters should do lots of things, but the Giants aren’t right now.

Had Blanco dropped a good bunt he might have had a single. With a runner on third and nobody or one out, Matt Cain pitching for the Giants and San Diego in a scoring slump of its own, Padres manager Buddy Black might have played the infield in even in the first inning, which would have given Belt a greater advantage.

Belt struck out, but that’s immaterial. We don’t know how the at-bat would have played out had the situation been different.

I’m not saying I know better than Bochy. I don’t. The purpose of the past seven paragraphs was furthering my argument that there is no room for dogmatism in baseball. Just because it rarely makes sense to give up an out two batters into the game doesn’t mean it never makes sense.

I did agree with the decision not to have Hector Sanchez sacrifice with two on and nobody out in the seventh. That’s a low-percentage play with a slow runner at second (Sandoval) and an even slower runner at the plate. A poor bunt would have been a sure double play. A bunt dribbled in front of the plate and retrieved by the catcher could have been a fairly easy triple.

Sanchez swung away and grounded into a short-to-first double play, but again, it’s about playing percentages. Nobody knows outcomes in advance.

Should Bochy have pinch-hit Buster Posey right there, in a scoring situation, rather than wait until the eighth inning?